Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald said a civil complaint filed Monday, June 2, that seeks damages relating to the botched deal to acquire the downtown Ameritrust Building for a county headquarters is “hopefully the last chapter of a very long story.”

The 13-count civil complaint charges eight business entities and two individuals with fraud, unjust enrichment, breach of fiduciary duty and violations of Ohio’s Corrupt Practices Act, the state’s version of the federal racketeering law.

It alleges that beginning in 2003, more than $600,000 was funneled to a small group of friends or associates of former Cuyahoga County commissioner Jimmy Dimora for “government relations” work that helped sway the county to purchase the Ameritrust Building for a consolidated headquarters. The county bought the building in 2005 for $21 million from the Richard E. Jacobs Group; it spent a similar amount in repairs and asbestos abatement before selling it in 2013 for $27 million to the Geis Cos., leading to a loss of at least $13 million on the deal.

FitzGerald’s reference to a “very long story” at a news conference this morning refers to the county corruption investigation that began in 2008 with a raid of county offices by federal agents. Eventually, more than 60 people pleaded guilty or were convicted of a variety of corruption-related charges. Chief among them were Dimora, who is serving a 28-year term, and former Cuyahoga County auditor Frank Russo, who is serving 22 years, both in federal penitentiaries.

The suit does not specify a total amount of damages, though the county’s losses were at least $13 million, and FitzGerald has said he seeks to make the county whole on the deal.

The named defendants are the real estate firm Jones Lang Lasalle Inc. and one of its business units; Vincent Russo and his Vincore LLC and Garibaldi Holdings; M2J1 LLC; Midwest Entertainment Venture LLC; Anatomy Nightclub; and 944 Prospect Avenue LLC and Harvey G. Oppmann.

Jones Lang Lasalle is the successor to the Staubach Co., which it purchased in 2008. The local Staubach office was paid $3 million by the county to find a new county headquarters. In 2005, it chose the Ameritrust Building, after the building’s ranking in Staubach’s assessment was changed from fourth to first, according to Cuyahoga County law director Majeed G. Makhlouf.

Vincent Russo is the son of Frank Russo. Vincent Russo pleaded guilty in September 2010 and served 18 months in prison to charges of bribery and conspiracy in connection with the county corruption scandal.

The suit connects M2J1 to Vincent Carbone, the president of the now-defunct R. P. Carbone Co. He had not been charged in either state or federal court with any crimes related to the Ameritrust deal.

Oppmann is described in the suit as manager of 944 Prospect. Oppmann’s company owned a parking garage across the street from the Ameritrust Building that eventually was sold to the county. Steven Pumper, the former owner of D-A-S Construction Co., pleaded guilty in 2009 to giving Dimora at least $33,000 to speed up the county’s purchase of the garage.

Oppmann has not been charged with any crimes related to the garage sale.

Midwest Entertainment Venture LLC, the county suit alleges, was in part owned by Steven Pumper. Anatomy Nightclub, in turn, is described in the suit as a business of Midwest Entertainment.

Makhlouf said the Staubach firm paid $300,000 in fees to Vincent Russo-related firms and $355,000 to Carbone entities for “government relations” work as it tried to win the contract to help the county find a new headquarters. But the company, he said, does not have documentation of what the company gained from the fees it paid.

“Other than the contracts themselves and the checks (paid to the firms), the complaint alleges (Staubach) has no record of what actual services were provided by Vincore, Garibaldi or Carbone,” he said. “And as we all know, none of those entities actually engages in the primary business of doing government relations.”

A Jones Lang Lasalle spokeswoman emailed a statement that read as follows:

“We are disappointed to hear that Cuyahoga County Executive Ed Fitzgerald has decided to move forward with a baseless lawsuit against JLL over the county’s acquisition of the Ameritrust complex. First and foremost, no one at JLL or at its predecessor, Staubach, engaged in any wrongdoing in connection with the Ameritrust project. We have cooperated fully with the federal and state authorities investigating this matter, including providing access to all of our files, making witnesses available to meet with prosecutors, and testifying before the grand jury on behalf of county prosecutors.”

Oppmann did not immediately return a call for comment.

Stan Bullard contributed to this story.

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